Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Shala: An opportunity that should be taken (Zëri)

Zëri carries an editorial by publisher Blerim Shala, who says the former US President, Bill Clinton, during his first visit to Kosovo in 1999, called on the Kosovo politicians to embrace democratic and liberal values and to build an ethnically tolerant society, where everybody would feel at home.

In another visit in September 2003, when he was awarded Honoris Causa of the University of Pristina, he said reaching those objectives would allow Kosovars to decide about their future.

It seems, Shala further says, that Kosovo politicians did not quite get the message Clinton brought in 1999 that Kosovars should not forget that Kosovo was for the first time on top of the international agenda. Clinton’s clear suggestion was to use the opportunity.

Now, six years later, there is little time left until the launch of the process of the status solution, Clinton’s message is even more important than it was in 1999. This opportunity should not be missed, concludes Shala.

15 comments:

Anonymous
said...

That is the only thing Kosova can become. After tasting what state sponsored terror is, the Albanians will not spill the same on others. In the end we will not fall to the level Serbs did in the 90s, I at least thing we're better than that.

It is clear, Serbs that want to build a Kosova together deserve a big hug and kiss on their cheeks for they will hopefully teach the extremist elements in Serb society that violence leads nowhere.

The record is now crystal clear that NATO and the Clinton administration deliberately lied about Serbian atrocities in Kosovo to justify their intervention in a low-intensity civil war in the Balkans.

It turns out that as few as 2,108 people were actually killed in Kosovo over a period of months leading up to and including the period of heavy bombardment of Serbia by NATO forces.

This is hardly "genocide," as it was billed by Clinton, Defense Secretary William Cohen, Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., former Sen. Bob Dole and David Scheffer, U.S. ambassador for war crimes.

By whipping up hysteria for an illegal bombing campaign, all of these men have blood on their hands.

It wasn't hundreds of thousands of dead in Kosovo, as some reports suggested. It wasn't even tens of thousands. It was, at worst, a couple thousand over a considerable period of time. That, of course, is still a dreadful and grisly toll. But, to put it in perspective, no global authority -- not the United Nations, nor NATO -- ever advocates intervention in the United States or anywhere else when the annual murder toll hits 2,000, which it does early in the first half of every year.

Think of the hyperbole we heard prior to the bombing campaign:

* "By the time the snows fall next winter, there will be genocide documented on a large scale in Kosovo," said Biden.

* "History will judge us harshly if we do not take action to stop this rolling genocide," said Hagel.

* "What we have in Kosovo and what (we) had in Bosnia was genocide, and that's why I think we should intervene," said Dole.

* "There are indications genocide is unfolding in Kosovo," said State Department spokesman Jamie Rubin.

* Cohen characterized the bombing campaign as a "fight for justice over genocide."

* Scheffer said Kosovo was one of the top three genocides since 1950, rivaled only by Rwanda and Cambodia.

But no one laid it on as thick as Clinton. He compared the atrocities in Kosovo to the Holocaust. Kosovo, he said, "is not war in the traditional sense. Imagine what would happen if we and our allies instead decided just to look the other way as these people were massacred on NATO's doorstep."

Clinton got testy in a June 25 press conference when asked if, indeed, NATO had actually been the party guilty of war crimes.

"NATO did not commit war crimes," he said. "NATO stopped war crimes. NATO stopped deliberate, systematic efforts at ethnic cleansing and genocide."

Yet, there is just no evidence to support Clinton's conclusion. Where are the bodies? So far, examination of the most likely dumping grounds has produced only 2,108. That's hardly genocide. It's tragic. But how does it justify an international bombing campaign that may well have resulted in far more civilian deaths in Serbia?

"You don't need numbers to justify genocide," he says. "Genocide is a question of intent and organization and the efficiency of that organization."

A couple of problems with that statement: First, if numbers aren't important, why did NATO inflate them to justify the war in the first place? Second, if genocide isn't about numbers, is it simply the latest in a series of new thought crimes that needs to be judged and punished before any real action takes place?

Sadly, most of the press went along for the ride with all the pre-war and post-war propaganda from government and supra-government authorities. Republicans and Democrats all participated. Officials in the United Kingdom and the United States led the way.

Thus, once more, we see the grave dangers of transferring power to unaccountable global authorities. Who is going to keep abuses in check? How do people have their say? What's to prevent a small elite clique of power brokers from making war in the future, as they clearly did in Kosovo?

Chronology of the KLA's Terrorism 1996-98 Before "Yugoslav Represion" on Kosovo)

1996April 22: Blagoje Okulic, a Serb refugee from Croatia, was sitting witha friend in a cafe when a masked member of the KLA opened fireon the customers with an automatic weapon. Okulic died inhospital. He was the first victim of the KLA.

Armand Daci (20), an ethnic Albanian student in dentistryschool, was shot and killed by a sniper.

June 16: In an attack against a police patrol near Podujevo, policeofficer Goran Mitrovic was heavily wounded.

June 17: Around 11:55 p.m. a police patrol in the village of Sipljenear Kosovska Mitrovica was attacked, resulting in the killingof Predrag Djordjevic (28) from Krusevac, and the wounding ofZoran Vukocic (30) from Nis.

The same day a bomb was hurled at the police station in Luzani,and the police officers on duty in the station were fired on byautomatic weapons. No one was injured.

July 11: One hour after midnight in the center of Podujevo terroristscarried out an armed attack against police officers, resultingin a heavy wounding of police officer Sredoje Radojevic.

Aug. 2: Armed attack on three police stations (in Pristina, Podujevo,and the village of Krpimej) around 10 p.m.

Aug. 28: Three bombs were hurled in the village of Celopek (border of thetowns Pec-Klina-Decani), around 3 a.m. No one was injured.

In the village of Donje Ljupce police inspector Ejup Bajgora (44),an ethnic Albanian who worked at the Pristina Precinct,was shot and killed.

Aug. 31: In the night hours two bombs were hurled into the courtyardof the Yugoslav Army's barracks in Vucitrn.

In the village of Rudnik (Srbica municipality) an armed attackwas carried out on the police station.

In Podujevo, police officers at the juncture of the roadPristina-Podujevo-Kursumlija were fired on. No one was hit.

The police station in Glogovac was fired on with automatic weapons.

Oct. 25: Two police officers were killed by automatic weapons near thevillage of Surkis in the Podujevo municipality -- Milos Nikolic,a police inspector of the Pristina Precinct, and Dragan Rakicfrom the village of Velika Reka, who was a police officer in thereserves and a manager of a company in Podujevo.

Nov. 16: In the village of Rznic, in Decan municipality, around 10:30 p.m.a terrorist attack was carried out on the police station. No onewas killed.

Dec. 26: Faik Belopolja, an ethnic Albanian from Podujevo who was aforest worker in the Serbia Forest Service, was shot and killed.

1997Jan. 9: In the center of Podujevo at 5:30 p.m. Malic Saholi (52), anethnic Albanian who was the manager of the superamarket "Vocar"and a deputy in the municipal council of Podujevo as a member ofthe Socialist Party of Serbia, was shot and killed.

Jan. 11: In the Vucitrn village of Mijalic, around 7 p.m. more than26 bullets were fired at the house of Ljubisa Mitrovic. No onewas killed.

Jan. 13: Shooting Fazil Hasani, an ethnic Albanian forest worker from thevillage of Brabonic (Srbica municipality) in the neck, KLOterrorists killed him and issued a statement denouncingMr. Hasani as a "traitor".

Jan. 16: Using remote-controlled explosives, the KLO attempted toassassinate the Dean of Pristina University, Mr. Papovic,at 8 a.m. as he was driving to the University. Both he andhis driver Nikola Lalic were heavily wounded. The explosiveswere set off when their car was some 50 meters from Dean Papovic'sapartment in Pristina.

Jan. 17: In the village of Reketnica (Srbica municipality), at 1 a.m.,ethnic Albanian Zen Durmisi (52) was shot and killed and hisson Nazmi Durmisi was heavily wounded. The Durmisi family waslabeled "pro-Yugoslav" by the terrorist KLA.

Feb. 1: KLA terrorists from a moving vehicle fired on police officers.The officers fired back and killed all three terrorists.

March 5: At 10:47 a.m., in front of the Pristina University School ofLanguages, a bomb in a container exploded. Four people werewounded, two ethnic Albanians -- Adrijana Dremka and LinditaMaksuti -- and two ethnic Serbs, Borivoje Popovic and IvanMaksimovic.

A second explosives device weighing 4.2 kilograms, which hadbeen placed at the base of the Vuk Karadzic monument in front ofthe School of Languages, was found and deactivated bymembers of the Anti-Ballistics Unit of the Pristina Precinct.

March 21: Around 8 p.m., in the center of Podujevo, KLA terrorists firedfive shots at police officer Branislav Milovanovic, woundinghim heavily. In a statement, the KLA claimed responsibilitydenouncing officer Milovanovic as a "Serbian policeman, wellknown blood-sucker and anti-Albanian".

March 25: Near the village Sicevo, Klin municipality, a group of attackerskilled ethnic Albanians Jusuf Haljiljaj and Fehmi Haziraj (whowere well known as loyal citizens of Serbia) and woundedethnic Albanian Mehmet Gasi.

April 10: In the village of Banjica near Glogovac, using automaticfirearms, KLA terrorists killed ethnic Albanian Ramiz Ljeka,who worked at the Glogovac Municipal Council.

May 6: Around 10:30 p.m. in the village of Lozica near Klina, ethnicAlbanian Hetem Dobruna (30), a farmer from the village, wasshot and killed.

June 19: On the Pristina-Podujevo-Nis road near the village of Donje Ljupcein the Podujevo municipality, terrorists fired 12 bulletsfrom automatic weapons at a police patrol. No one was injured.

July 3: In the village of Trstenik, Glogovac municipality, in the earlymorning hours the KLA shot and killed ethnic Albanian Ali Calapek,a farmer who was a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia and amember of the local Election Commission in the 1996 elections.

July 21: The Assistant District Attorney in Pec, Miroljub Petrovic, wasshot and killed.

Aug. 3: A police vehicle was fired on at 7 p.m., in the village ofBradis which is 10 kilometers from Podujevo.

Aug. 4: At 9:30 a.m., on the road from the village of Rudnik to Srbica,KLO terrorists from Drenica fired on a police vehicle usingautomatic weapons. Police officers Milomir Dodic and ZoranBoskovic were heavily wounded, and a civilian who was in thecar was lightly wounded.

Aug. 23: Forest worker Sadi Morina, an ethnic Albanian, was killed inSrbica. Mr. Morina had already been receiving threats from KLOterrorists for a long time because he remained to work"in the service of Serbia".

Aug. 24: In the village of Zub near Djakovica an ethnic Albanian,Kcira Ndue (32), was shot and killed, while his brotherBekim Ndue was wounded.

The police station in the village of Rznic near Decani wassprayed with gunfire.

Sept. 2: At 10:55 p.m. Ljimon Krasnici, an ethnic Albanian denouncedby the KLA terrorists as a "traitor", was killed in his home.

Sept. 12: A dozen attacks were carried out on police stationsin the municipalities of Pec, Glogovac, Decani, and Djakovicaaround 11 p.m. No one was injured.

Sept. 13: Around 10 p.m. a hand grenade was hurled at the policestation in Luzano, near Podujevo.

Sept. 14: A hand grenade was hurled at the police station in Kijevo,near Klina.

Sept. 23: Around 11 a.m. in the vicinity of the village of Kijevo,the KLA opened fire on a motorized police patrol. MilanStanojevic, the commander of the Djakovica Precinct, was inthe vehicle. No one was injured.

Oct. 13: The police station in Calopek near Pec was attacked.

Oct. 16: Around 1:30 a.m. there was a terrorist attack on the policestation in the village of Klincina, which lies on the roadPec-Pristina. Adrijan Krasnici (25) from Vranovci near Pecdied in the ensuing gun battle.

Oct. 17: Around 1 a.m. the residential community Babaloc, located betweenDecani and Djakovica, where 120 Serbian refugee families whofled from Albania several years ago are situtated, was attacked.

Oct. 20: The OVK claimed responsibility for attacks on police stations inBabaloc, Calopek, and Klincina, as well as police patrols inGerlica near Urosevac and Balinac near Klina, about which thepublic had not been informed earlier.

Nov. 18: Around 7 p.m. in the village of Komoran near Glogovac,Camil Gasi, an ethnic Albanian deputy in the Parliament of theFederal Republic of Yugoslavia and the chairman of theMunicipal Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia for Glogovac,was wounded heavily. His driver was wounded as well.

Nov. 25: KLA terrorists held the police station in Srbica surroundedfor 15 hours.

Around 7 p.m. in Decani, and after midnight in the village ofRznic, two terrorist attacks were carried out in which policeofficer Dragic Davidovic (32) from Berane was killed, andLjubisa Ilic from Srbica, also a policeman, was heavily wounded.Bojan Trboljevac from Leposavic, Srdjan Pavlovic (26) fromZubin Potok, and Nedeljko Aksentijevic (30) from Kragujevac allsubsequently died from mortal wounds.

Dec. 4: The KLA claimed responsibility for an attack on Pristina Airport,claiming that it shot down a "Cessna 310" on Nov. 26 killing allfive people on-board.

Dec. 15: Around 1 a.m. on the road Srbica-Klina three masked KLO terroristsstopped a convoy of three cars with 16 Serbian civilian passangers.According to the civilians' testimonies, the terrorists -- whowere armed with machine-guns and hand grenades -- threatenedthem with death.

Dec. 19: Around 6 p.m. on the road Klina-Srbica, near the village ofJosanica, eight masked and heavily armed KLA terrorists stoppedthe car of the civilian Milan Sapic from Lazarevacthreatening, insulting, and searching his family and him.

Dec. 25: Two terrorist attacks were carried out shortly after 3 p.m.against police officers in the Podujevo municipality: In thevillage of Zakut a police vehicle was fired on, and in thecenter of Podujevo explosives devices were hurled at theresidential building where police officers live. There were novictims.1998Jan. 4: The KLA claimed responsibility for a series of terroristactivities in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:planting a bomb in front of the police station in Prilep,which caused no injuries but demolished five cars;attacking the police station in Kumanovo; and attackingthe Municipal Court in Gostivar on Dec. 16, '97.

Jan. 9: Shortly after 8 p.m., Djordje Belic (57) was shot and killedwith an automatic weapon at the doorstep of his house in thevillage of Stepanica near Kijevo. Belic was the head of one ofthe three remaining Serbian households in that village.

Jan. 12: In the town of Stimlje near Urosevac, shortly after midnight onthe night of Jan. 11/12, there was an armed attack on thebuilding in which seven families of police officers reside.The shots ended up in the bedrooms of some of their apartments.Miraculously, there were no victims.

Around 8 a.m., in the vicinity of the village Gradac nearGlogovac in Drenica, forest worker Sejdi Muja, an ethnicAlbanian, was shot and killed. He and another Albanian had beenstopped by a masked and armed three-member group of KLAterrorists, and after checking his ID card established thatMuja was on their list of "traitors". They dragged him out ofthe car and shot him, leaving his body by the road. He was a"traitor" just because he worked in the Serbia Forest Service.

Jan. 13: The KLA issued a statement stating that its headquarters was inPristina. It also claimed responsibility for a series of terroristactions carried out in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia:an attack on the Municipal Court in Gostovar and the policestations in Prilep and Kumanovo. It announced that it wouldexpand its actions into Montenegro.

Jan. 14: The headquarters of the Socialist Party of Serbia for Djakovicawere stoned overnight, Jan. 13/14. All windows were broken.These were greetings for the "Serbian New Year" which is markedon Jan. 14.

Jan. 19: In Srbica all graves at the Serbian Orthodox Cemetary weredesecrated and vandalized. The monuments at the graves werecompletely destroyed.

Jan. 22: After a KLA patrol had been stopping, harassing, and threateningcitizens with death in the Srbica municipality the previous night,there was a confrontation between that patrol and a patrol ofpolice officers. While chasing the KLA terrorists, who barricadedthemselves in the house of Saban Jasari in the village ofDonji Prekaz near Srbica, police officers killed the terroristHasan Mandzol and lightly wounded two Jasari brothers.

A three-member KLA group kidnapped the taxi driver Metus Skodru,an ethnic Albanian, and then took his cab, an Audi 90. They toldhim he could buy his cab back if he showed up at a designatedplace at a designated time, under the threat that he would bekilled if he called the police.

Jan. 23: On the night of Jan. 22/23, on the road Srbica-Klina near thevillage of Josanica, Desimir Vasic, a deputy in the MunicipalAssembly of Zvecan was shot and killed.

On the same road, the same night, near the village LausaBlagoje Nikolivc from the village of Drsnik near Klina wasseverely beaten until he became unconscious.

During the same night, KLA terrorists stopped, harassed, andthreatened with death a group of Serbian women heading toMonastery Devic.

Jan. 25: On the night of Jan. 24/25, in the town of Malisevo, in thevery center KLA terrorists heavily wounded two police officers.

During the same night, KLA terrorists attacked the house of theDjuricic family in the village of Grabanica, near Klina in Drenica.

Terrorists hurled a bomb at the house of a police officer inUrosevac.

Jan. 26: In the vicinity of the village of Turicevac, which is locatedbetween Klina and Srbica, KLA terrorists opened fire usingautomatic weapons on a helicopter belonging to Serbia'sMinistry of Internal Affairs.

Jan. 27: Again in the vicinity of Turicevac, an armed terrorist groupstopped Veroslav Vukojcic from Leposavic and his neighborsRadmila and Zvezdana Vukajlovic. They beat them severely. Thevictimis paid the terrorists to let them go -- Vukojvcic paid500 German marks, and Vukajlovic paid 850 marks.

Jan. 28: A police patrol which was on its way to Decani to confiscateillegal weapons from the family Tahirsuljaja fell into atrap and was greeted with heavy gunfire from several houses.Nevertheless, the officers managed to arrest seven members ofthe Tahirsuljaja clan.

That evening, KLA terrorists fired at the house ofDragoljub Spasic in the village of Sibovac near Obilic.

Feb. 10: A group of KLA terrorists appeared at a fundraising event forthe KLA in New York City. They received funding from over 150Albanians attending the event. On that occasion, the KLAterrorists proclaimed that they had killed 50 Serbian policeofficers and "corrupt" Albanians in 1997.

Feb. 12: In Gornji Obrinj, in front of the village convenience store,Mustafa Kurtaj, an ethnic Albanian who worked at the postoffice in Glogovac, was shot and killed. He was shot inbroad daylight, in front of twenty onlookers, as a warningto others. Prior to this, he had been repeatedly warned byKLA terrorists that they would kill him unless he quit hisjob at the state-run post office.

Feb. 15: Nik Abdulahu, an ethnic Albanian employee of the Serbia ElectricUtility, was shot and killed while at work, at the electricitysubstation in the village of Staro Cikatovo near Glogovac.

Feb. 18: In the night between Feb. 17/18, KLA terrorists collectedfirearms from ethnic Albanians in Drenica, for whom theysuspected that they did not support their cause. Those who didnot turn over their weapons were given a deadline to do so,"othewise," they were told, "you will be shot".

The police checkpoint near the village Dobre Vode in theKlina municipality was attacked with automatic weapons.

Feb. 19: While returning from work, an employee of the state securityservice of Pristina Nebojsa Cvejic was shot and killed near thevillage of Luzani.

Feb. 20: On the road Srbica-Klina, near the village of Lausi, KLAterrorists shot and killed Milorad Ristic, a privateentrepreneur from Djakovica, and heavily wounded truck driverZdravko Djuricic from Orahovac.

On the same day, on the same road, near the village of JosanicaKLA terrorists opened fire on another truck, which was beingdriven by an ethnic Serb. However, an ethnic Albanian hitchhikerfrom the village of Lausi, who was sitting in the passenger seatand whom the driver had picked up in Klina, was killed by theKLA terrorists' gunfire.

That evening, on the road Klina-Djakovica, KLA terrorists set upa roadblock where they beat up police officer Milenko Kandic.

Feb. 22: Ali Raci, an ethnic Albanian working at a Serbian-ownedagriculture company, was shot and killed in the village ofDobre Vode at the entrance of the agriculture company. He hadrefused to give in to the KLA's earlier warnings and blackmailthat he quit his job.

Feb. 26: Using hand grenades and automatic weapons, terrorists attackedSerbian refugees from Albania housed in the refugee camp Babaloc(located on the road Decani-Djakovica) for the third time.

Feb. 27: KLA terrorists attacked the houses in Srbica where Serbianrefugees from Croatia are temporarily housed.

At Monastery Devic, KLA terrorists harassed the head nun for30 minutes. They ordered her to tell the police that they willall be killed.

A KLA warehouse containing 12 kilograms of explosives with clocks,several trunks of shells, and over 120 rocket launchers wasdiscovered in Prizren. Several terrorists were arrested.

The comments coming from Serbs explain it very well why Kosova must be independent:

"it is easier to train a jackass than an albanian"

"kosovo is a cancer for serbia, infested with rats. exept for teh "educated" poulation, i mean come on dude hahah, lets not kid ourselves"

I for myself choose independence, as far as possible from these thugs. The really sad thing is these are Serbs who are able to write/speak English, and if this is the case with people who have obviously been under the influence of non-Serb ideology, then what is the case with the rest of that county? Another Holocaust in horizon? Another Crusade/Jihad?

dude it is the albaniacs who completed a genocide agasint serbs the past 100 years, u know that. the land is totally cleared of serbs who were the vast majority of teh population teh past 1k years in kosovo. so stop ur stupid "genicide" rhetoric stop fliping it around caue it is u who have committed the genocide.

i have to say, what about 2000 years ago. you were not in kosova at all. do we really want to go that far. first you grant some kind of autonomy and grant kosovars the right to vote ( which does not count the same as that of a serb. they are citizens of yugoslavia at the time, no? ) than, when kosovars ask for independence you act suprised. dude you brought this on yourself. how can kosovars be nice to serbs if serbs are not being nice to them? the feeling has to be mutual and both parties must aspire peace and prospect for their people.

dude 2000 years ago u werent in kosovo either, what is ur point? with ur logic we then should give america back to the indians no??? they have been around for only 200 years serbs have been in ksosovo 1700 years and albos the last 150. look up teh ottoman census from the 15th 16th cen. u were nowhere to even be mentioned.

1300 hundred years ago you were going around like a traveling circus with dancing bears. that was your specialty when you came from the carpates mountains, you couldn't work the land, couldn't take care of animals, nothing. to be sure, you tried military means as well and were turned back but eventually you got a piece of Illyria since the Roman/Byzantine empire was falling apart. Dancing bears and bee honey was your specialty back then.Fast forward to 150 year ago and my great granddad would change to a serb's red neck, his laborer, when fording the river. This was in Kursumlija (cleansed in 1878 in case you have lost track of campaings), well inside present Serbia. God bless his soul, he loved his horse very much.

in 2005 u guys arent even teh level of a circus, maybe the freak shows. what nonsense what stupidity, just admit that u stole the land ok. agian look up when the first time teh word ALBANIAN was used it was in teh 12 th centurey not 100,000 years ago. in the 14th 15th 16 17 18th cent. u were nowhere to be found in kosovo, before the 19th cen, u were not teh gloriuos "illirians" u wer a bunch of sheep fuckers who dont even know whee u came from. in the last 100 years u have cleansed teh land of serbs kicked hundreds of thouansd oout and killed totally compleating a real genocide not just saying stupid shit like "serbs killed 500000 albaniacs" etc. nonesense.

the modern Albanians were not mentioned in Byzantine chronicles until 1043, although Illyria was part of the Byzantine Empire, and since the Illyrians are referred to for the last time as an ethnic group in Miracula Sancti Demetri (7th century AD.), some scholars maintain that after the arrival of the Slavs the Illyrians were extinct. [3](see the Jireček Line) it is believed that most inhabitants of Illyria were Hellenized (the Southern part) and later Romanized (opponents say that some Illyrians were not Hellenized or Romanized, but maintained their own language, which may have been a proto-Albanian language). [4]most Illyrian toponyms, hydronyms, names, and words have not been shown to be related to Albanian, and they do not indicate that Illyrians spoke a proto-Albanian language (opponents say that many of these toponyms, hydronyms and names are Hellenized and Romanized; whether the change in form is dramatic or not is hard to know in a number of cases).ancient Illyrian toponyms (such as Shkoder from the ancient Scodra, Tomor from ancient Tomarus) were not directly inherited in Albanian, as their modern names do not correspond to the phonetic laws of Albanian [5]a number of scholars believe that Illyrian was a Centum language, though others disagree. If Illyrian was Centum, then it is unlikely that Albanian (which is Satem) is an Illyrian language [6]